Guidelines for Regulation of Greenwashing Released

The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) has issued the guidelines for prevention and regulation of greenwashing and misleading environmental claims. They aim to enhance consumer trust and encourage sustainable business practices by curbing false claims or exaggerations of environmental benefits of products or services. The guidelines are in furtherance to the guidelines for prevention of misleading advertisements and endorsements for misleading advertisements, 2022.

The draft guidelines seeking stakeholder comments were released in February. The final guidelines now contain ‘misleading environmental claims’ in the title, which was missing in the draft. The final guidelines have also specifically excluded company mission statements from the definition of ‘Greenwashing’ and added an illustration to explain it instead of a separate section on ‘non application’ shared in the draft.  

Moreover, the guidelines have extended its application to manufacturers and ‘all environmental claims’ instead of ‘all advertisements’, thus broadening its scope. Similarly, the words ‘natural, organic, pure, sustainable, regenerative’ have been expressly added and words such as ‘Carbon Offsets, carbon neutral, Ozone-Safe and Ozone-Friendly’ have been replaced with ‘plastic-free, plastic-positive, climate-positive, and net zero’ in the final guidelines. The guidelines have also added clarity to the word ‘verifiable evidence’ in the draft by replacing it with ‘accessible verifiable evidence based on independent studies or third-party certifications.’